Trista Sutter Has a New Career — Kids Clothes Designer!

The first Bachelorette has designed a new line of children’s clothing — with her two kids as models.

Trista Sutter has a really simple reason for becoming a kids’ clothing designer. “I love anything that revolves around babies and clothing,” she says. In an exclusive interview with HollyBaby.com, Trista reveals her inspiration for her new line, My Vintage Baby, how it has given her kids, Max and Blakesley, careers of their own, and why she and her husband, Ryan, are not doing another reality TV show… at least not right now.

Trista admits that designing a children’s clothing wasn’t her idea. “I was promoting The Hot Mom-To-Be Handbook, I wrote the foreword for the book, when they approached me and wanted to meet,” she says. “We all liked each other and thought we’d give it a try.”

The 37-year-old had previously designed a small collection of diaper bags, so when given the opportunity to do something like this, she jumped at it. “It’s a really fun way to use my creative juices,” she admits.

The clothes are bright and colorful and feature floral or animal prints that give them a retro feel. “The name of the company is My Vintage Baby,” she laughs. “It’s just a mix of different patterns that you wouldn’t necessarily put together right away. And it’s really cute. The little details, the flowers, the animal stuff, I think it’s what makes the pieces unique and I thought they were precious.”

As to her own inspiration, that was pretty straightforward, too. “I want it to be something that you feel is unique that your grandmother made you,” she says. “That you know is special and that has some kind of meaning. I just wanted something that stands out.”

If you look at the pictures of Trista’s collection, you might see two young children who look very familiar. They should, as they’re Trista’s own kids, her son Max, 3, and daughter Blakesley, 1, both of whom seem to be having a heck of a lot of fun in front of that camera.

“First of all, I am NOT out to exploit my children!” she says with mock seriousness. Then, after a laugh, continues, “This photo shoot, they were both just hamming it up for the camera and we got great, great shots. And the people who were involved were all saying I should have them model. It would be nice for them to build their checking accounts and learn some responsibility with jobs and such, but we’ll only do it around their schedule and only on our terms.”

It’s that devotion to her own family’s schedule — she and Ryan (who she met and fell in love with on The Bachelorette) live in Vail, Colorado, where he is a firefighter — that will probably keep her off any new reality TV shows for the near future. Though she had fun doing Dancing With the Stars in 2005, she prefers living in the mountains and staying a bit off the radar.

“We’re constantly being asked to do a reality show, but we keep saying no,” she says. “If I really wanted to do something, I could move to New York or LA for six months, but there’s a reason why we live in Colorado. Never say never, but we wouldn’t want something that was so intrusive and putting our children on camera 24/7. There might be something for us out there, eventually, but certainly nothing in the pipeline right now.”